We may now refer to facts connected with these sainted fathers of our Church which throw much light on the practice of confession, from the earliest period of faith in our island. Thus, of St. Adamnan we read that, being troubled about some sin of his early youth “he resorted to a priest from whom he hoped to learn the way of salvation, and confessing his fault [pg 484] prayed for such counsel as might enable him to flee from the avenging anger of God”.[26]
In the life of St. Columba, too, it is recorded that one day an Irishman from Connaught, by name Ildran, landed on the beach of Iona and proceeded to the guest-house of the monastery. On the following morning he made known to the saint the object of his journey, viz.: to do penance for his sins, and “at the same hour he confessed all his sins and promised to fulfil the laws of penance”.[27] On another occasion St. Columba was visited by a person named Fiachna, who, being touched with remorse for some crime, fell at the saint's feet and “confessed his sins before all that were there present”, whereupon the holy man weeping embraced him, and said, “Arise, my son, and be comforted; thy sins are forgiven thee, for, as it is written, the contrite and humble heart God doth not despise”.[28]
In the case of a chieftain named Suibhne, it is mentioned that, though truly penitent, he was ordered by St. Pulcherius to confess his sins.[29] We find also St. Maidoc of Ferns earnestly soliciting to have a wise confessor divinely destined for his guidance. St. Molua of Clonfert-molua was the person chosen by him, and hence, amongst other titles given to this last-named saint, is “Father of the Confession of Maidoc”.[30] Again, in the life of St. Finbar it is mentioned that a young man from Leinster went to Iona to be guided by Columba: being obliged soon after to return to his native country, he thus affectionately addressed the holy abbot: “O sancte Dei! quomodo in patria mea vivam et tibi confitear peccata mea?”[31]
In the Martyrology of Donegal, St. Meallan of Loch Oirbsen, in Connaught, is styled the Anmehara of St. Furse, who since the middle of the seventh century is venerated as patron of Peronne in France (pag. 40, I.A.S., 1865). In the Felire of Aenghus, St. Donnan of Eigg is also said to have gone to St. Columcille “to make him his soul's friend” (Reeves' Columba, p. 305). This title of Anmchara is given to the divine Redeemer himself by St. Aileran, in the beautiful prayer printed in the Record, [pg 485] pag. 64, and, as we have already said, was the name given by the faithful in our early Church to those who in the Latin records are styled Confessarii, or Patres Confessionis. The Book of Fenagh in one of its most ancient records states, that “Columba plus venit ad S. Kilianum et ei confessus est peccata sua” (I.A.S. Miscellany, vol. i., pag. 118). Of St. Finbarr it is also recorded that, on the death of his spiritual director, he went to St. Olan to make him patrem confessionis suae, or at least to be directed by him as to the person whom he should select; and the legend adds that St. Olan replied: “Christ Himself will be your confessor, and He will receive your hand”; meaning, probably, that the hour of his death was come, for the next fact mentioned in St. Finbarr's life is his happy passage to eternity (Life of St. Finbarr, edited by R. Caulfield. London, 1864, pag. 21).
Probus, in the life of our great Apostle (chap. 20), mentions that one of the chief petitions which he made to God, during the time of his penitential retirement on Croaghpatrick, was: “Ut unusquisque homo fidelis Hibernorum per poenitentiam et confessionem Deo satisfaciens licet in extremo vitae suae spatio, ab ipso elementer suscipiatur”. It was to become sharer of this great privilege that St. Cormac, Bishop and King of Cashel, baying foretold his death, summoned to him St. Macsuach, Abbot of Castledermot, to whom he made his confession, and received from his hands the holy sacrament of the Eucharist. (I.A.S. 1860. Annals, pag. 203).
The confession even of venial faults was especially dwelt upon by St. Molua. One of his religious was negligent on this head, and St. Molua took occasion to correct him by his own example. As they were journeying together on a certain day, St. Molua said to him: “Peccavi vere hodie quia confessionem alicui seniori non feci de his quae egi hodie: me igitur hic sustine modicum donec vadam illuc et confitear”. The religious was struck with terror, and asked “would it not suffice to confess these sins to God alone?” but the saint replied that unless we confess even our venial transgressions, we can only obtain pardon for them by severe penitential deeds here and hereafter, and added the well-known illustration: “Sicut pavimentum domus scopâ quotidie tergitur, ita anima quotidianâ confessione”. The ancient life concludes; “Hoc audiens monachus a suo sancto Abbate, promisit confiteri sua offendicula; et confitebatur fideliter, et sanatus est ille frater a sua praeterita audacia” (Vita ex Vet. Cod. Armac., edited by Fleming, cap. 32.)
There is only one document to which the enemies of our holy faith can appeal as evidencing a disregard for the sacrament of penance in our early Church: it is a letter of Alcuin, addressed, in the text of Canisius, dilectissimis viris fratribus et patribus [pg 486]in provincia Scotorum, in which he mentions the rumour which had reached him, that the laity had refused “confessionem sacerdotibus dare”. Here (writes Dean Murray) is a clear rejection of Popery. However, antiquarians have long since decided that this text has no reference to sacramental confession (see Lanigan, iv. 67): and as the good Protestant dean had given his citation from Usher, he should have added that in Usher's opinion the title of this letter of Alcuin was erroneous, and that it was addressed to some faithful quite distinct from our old Celtic forefathers. This opinion no longer admits of any doubt. Canisius himself remarked “that in the MS. from which he published this letter, it was addressed de dilectissimis, etc. in provincia Gothorum”, and he merely substituted the word Scotorum, as a conjecture, not knowing that there were any people in the days of Alcuin who still retained the name of Gothic. Later discoveries, however, have proved that the very province of Languedoc, in which territory Alcuin lived for a long time, was designated by this name. The learned Quercetanus discovered a letter of Alcuin himself (ep. 99), addressed to the faithful “in diversis Gothiae partibus”; and Baluzius, in his Miscellanea (i. 377), published another letter of the same Alcuin, “iis qui sunt in Gothiae partibus”. The errors of Felix Urgellitanus, which are here referred to, fix more and more the district to which this letter was addressed; for whilst they had begun to creep in amongst the faithful of France, they were wholly unheard of in the Island of Saints.
Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop Of Armagh.
“Many a mile have I gone, and many did I walk,